> Which company would accept (and pay for that) given there's no legal requirement for it?

Maybe relevant for a company whose business model is built around the promise of preserving end-user privacy?

> I don't see why

Data storage and network communication occurring inside the European space alone, rather than sending packets from European users to elsewhere unknown. Being fully accountable to European law, with base offices and employees in Europe so they are subject to the same data-protection rules as other locally-based companies.

When looking at other alternatives such as Ecosia, Qwant: they do offer this and yet are seldom presented as a search engine option by Android. Strange.

> When looking at other alternatives such as Ecosia, Qwant

W.r.t. them I agree, but have they been subject to a 3rd party audit (honest question, I'm not familiar with them)?

I'm not saying we should trust DDG (or any search engine) 100% without proof, but the best way of keeping your privacy is not collecting data and it seems DDG is doing that.

We don't know what they are collecting. They could just as well be an NSA front and easily profile based on IP searches. In the end, American companies bend to US law. That is why Europeans should desire a European alternative in the first place. The workaround is using Tor.

A short cookie with a browser fingerprint will be enough for tracking.

Cool, are they calling APIs that give fingerprinting data? Using tracking images?

Because unless you have evidence they're abusing their data collection (as, you know, a lot of websites do) I'm not buying the FUD.

What makes you blindly trust DDG and give them the benefit of doubt compared to other companies?

You mean compared to Google and Facebook?

DDG is a tiny company that owes its small measure of success to building and maintaining a good reputation among devs and other tech-savvy, privacy-conscious users.